Dynamo Kyiv take on the visitors Partizan in the first leg quarterfinals of UEFA Champions League qualification. The match will be played on Tuesday, July 23rd at Arena Lublin (Lublin).
Dynamo Kyiv ended the Lucescu era in 2023. Mircea, initially met with resistance due to his past with Shakhtar (and his work with Zenit), initially brought trophies back, including a UPL title, and delivered results in the Champions League. However, 2023 was truly disastrous: a record low in the Premier League, failing to qualify for even the group stage of the Conference League, and an early exit from the cup. After this, "The Mister" was removed from his position under a pretext before the winter break. He was replaced by Shovkovskiy, who earned the permanent head coach position. Under him, the team managed to return to second place but didn’t seriously challenge Shakhtar. This season, more will be expected from "Sasho," but the squad has been strengthened with interesting players such as Rybchynski, Pikhalenko, and Bragaru.
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Partizan returns to a familiar, but not maximum, level. "Gravediggers" are quite similar to their Ukrainian opponent. Like Dynamo, Partizan is a capital-based historic national giant, with a plethora of trophies and several European successes, currently in a secondary role, losing to their eternal rival – in the Serbian case, Red Star Belgrade. Moreover, the Belgrade representative was also knocked out by audacious contenders in the 2022/2023 season but managed to return to their usual vice-champion position by the spring of the last season. Over the summer, the club not only conducted full-fledged training camps (though with mixed results against strong opponents) but also started the new national championship. And not without problems – they barely managed to overcome modest Napredak with a single goal in the 93rd minute.
Dynamo Kyiv has a perfect record in this pairing. Both in the European Champions Cup in 1976 and in the Europa League in 2017 – all four matches were won by the Ukrainians. The "Blue and Whites" should demonstrate that they remain the stronger team even on neutral ground. We expect their victory in this match, even on what is effectively neutral territory.
Prediction for the match: Dynamo Kyiv to win.
